ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 15256 (YN65 XDV), a Scania N230 ADL Enviro400, in a tight spot in Bridwell Avenue, near Uffculme in East Devon, working route 373 from Tiverton to Cullompton. All photographs in this article were taken on Saturday 4 May 2024.
Devon Be Praised!
14 February 2026
When does afternoon become evening? The online consensus seems to be that it's between 5pm and 6pm, and might vary according to season, with lighter evenings encouraging longer afternoons, if that makes sense.
I'm right on the cusp of afternoon and evening as I stand in the Town Centre of Cullompton, 13 miles north-east of Exeter. It's a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon/evening in early May - so unexpectedly warm that I have been back to my hotel in Exeter during the day to drop off my coat!
I've come here to ride route 373 to Tiverton. This is an hourly service provided by Stagecoach South West, and I'm delighted when the incoming service turns out to be a double-decker:
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 10696 (SN66 VVG), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, in Cullompton High Street at the end of the incoming journey from Tiverton on route 373.
Local manufacturing in Cullompton involved wool and cloth, but subsequently expanded into leather and paper. The centre of the town is a conservation area, with two Grade I, seven Grade II* and no fewer than 90 Grade II-listed buildings in the parish.
I wonder if the old Police House is one of them? A former building on the site of 11 High Street was transformed in 1849 to become a Town Hall and Sessions House. It was sold to Devon County Council to be used solely as a Police Station in 1870. A new building was constructed in 1898 and served as the Police Station until the 1970s. It is now occupied by an Estate Agent (information source: Historic Cullompton).
ABOVE: The distinctive clock of the former Police Station
As the occupants of the Police Station probably would have said, I set off on the 373 in a northerly direction, at 17:00 hours.
Many of those who live here nowadays are commuters, and that is probably one of the drivers of the new-build development I discover on the outskirts of the town. Demand for housing in this area is likely to increase further, following confirmation from HM Treasury in Summer 2025 that funding for the reopening of the railway station has been approved.
The town is very close to the M5 motorway - the Cullompton Service Area was built on the site of the old railway station, which closed in 1964. We cross the motorway a few miles north of Cullompton - the M5 will never be far away during this trip.
Willand is first recorded in 1042 as having "belonged to Ethmar", although it is believed that there has been a settlement here since the Iron Age. I can't find anything about Ethmar except a suggestion that the name is probably Anglo-Saxon, but he owned a nice spot...
ABOVE: Willand Old Village
The bus progresses towards Uffculme, on the upper reaches of the River Culm. From the 16th century, Uffculme was a significant part of the West Country's wool industry. Coldharbour Mill is one of the oldest woollen mills in the UK, having been in continuous production since 1797. It was turned into a working museum in 1983.
The roads are getting quite tight for a double-decker bus as we edge through the Village Square:
We turn into Bridge Street; another tight road but the view across to what is probably the start of the Blackdown Hills National Landscape is stunning:
After crossing the River Culm, we move into slightly less-tight roads and I breathe a sigh of relief as another large bus (well, its driver, really) has successfully navigated the tight streets and come out unscathed and without delay. Then, at Wellands Close (next to Uffculme Cemetery), the bus does a three-point turn and starts heading back into the village!
This turns out to be part of an extraordinary double-run of around a mile each way, and we are heading back to the tight streets of the village again! This does at least give me a chance to photograph the spire of St Mary's Church, just around the corner from the Square. This tall broach spire is apparently a rare feature on churches in Devon - nearly as rare as me capturing an image, whilst on the move, that actually has some specific relevance to what I am writing about! The present church, which is Grade II* listed, has a mixture of medieval and Victorian architecture.
We get back through the village without incident (of course - these drivers know their stuff!), and venture onto Bridwell Avenue, an even narrower tree-lined country lane. I would hate to think what would happen if we met a bus going the opposite way here...
It is of course more-or-less at this point that we meet a bus going the opposite way - see the title picture! Fortunately, there are passing places and we are just about able to wriggle our way past our opposite number!
The roads become easier as we approach Waterloo Cross. There's a hotel / pub on the junction here but I'm not sure whether the pub has given its name to the locale or vice versa. The "Old Well Garden Centre" on the other side of the road also uses "Waterloo Cross" as its address, as does the "Waterloo Court Health & Wellbeing Centre" just beyond the junction, but there isn't much else here as far as I can tell.
ABOVE: The Waterloo Cross Hotel & Pub is seen on the left, with the Old Well Garden Centre on the right, in an area that seems to be known as Waterloo Cross.
We're less than a mile (to the east) from the village of Appledore - not to be confused with the more well-known village of the same name 38 miles away at the mouth of the River Torridge in North Devon! We, however, are turning west, and again come to the M5 motorway. Here is where we cross it for the second and last time, and start to venture away!
Or do we? After the motorway, we drive for half-a-mile along the A361 and enter the environs of the village of Sampford Peverell, before turning away from the village and heading almost back to the motorway again on a parallel road. We are less than 300 yards from the motorway as we serve the local railway station.
Sampford Peverell is the nearest village (one mile), whilst the hamlet of Ayshford is slightly closer as the crow flies, but very awkward to get to from here. But this station does not carry either of these names. It opened in 1986 as Tiverton Parkway, having replaced a station nearby that was known as Tiverton Junction (and originally Tiverton Road). It was, however, the site of an earlier Sampford Peverell station that closed in 1964.
The station itself is a simple two-platform affair:
The curious thing for me about this station is that, whilst it is sited close to the motorway, and right next to junction 27 thereof, the access by road requires over a mile's drive.
It's quite a pretty environment, though, as a number of streams run through the area, and a couple of larger lakes have formed, such as the one below:
We now have to retrace that last half-mile, to get us back to Sampford Peverell. An Old Saxon settlement, the village claimed some notoriety in 1810, when it was reported that a house in the village was experiencing dramatic poltergeist activity. The paranormal activity turned out to be noises made by smugglers hiding behind a false wall.
There's another double-run here; much briefer than the previous two but enabling access to more parts of the village, including the village Cricket Ground and the Culm Sampford United Football Club. The latter specialises in under-18s events.
We head on towards Halberton, through more lovely countryside:
ABOVE: On the road between Sampford Peverell and Halberton
We're on the final approach to Tiverton now, and the small but functional bus station comes into view:
ABOVE: A Stagecoach South West ADL Enviro400 is the only customer at Tiverton Bus Station prior to our arrival. It is probably forming one of the routes to Exeter - the 55 or the slightly longer 355.
This medium-sized town (population around 20,000) stands at the confluence of the rivers Exe and Lowman. The town's name is conjectured to have been derived from "Twy-ford-ton" or "Twyverton", meaning "the town on two fords", and was historically referred to as "Twyford".
And this marks the terminus of the 373. We're on time, at 17:57. Afternoon really has turned to evening now, and the bus to Exeter that I subsequently catch is full of youngsters heading into the city for their Saturday night out.
What a delightful drive on route 373, through some lovely villages in bright sunshine. This route has enabled me to explore some parts of East Devon that I am unlikely to have discovered otherwise. A lovely way to pass an hour!
By the way, I think the evening begins at 6, but also that evening bus service patterns on Mondays to Fridays should not kick in until 7!
An approximation of route 373 is as below:
